Talking to Guests
by Phil on Jun 18 2009 (4028 Views)Whenever a guest speaker is invited to my institute, it is the custom for a few members of our group to speak with him/her about their projects. Normally you have a time slot of about 15 minutes.
It is always a good idea to check the guest's home page first, in order to find out what topics he will be particularly interested in. For instance, somebody doing research in a biological field will not want to know all the details of my synthesis. On the other hand, a synthetic chemist will not be interested in the invasive mechanism of the bug I'm fighting. By now I have a small presentation of abot 20 slides, of which I will focus on the ones most interesting to the guest.
I always like it best when the guests show some interest and ask questions. In those cases I stop giving a "talk" and enter into the discussion. Sometimes the questions are really hard to answer, but they are always very interesting because they look at my work from a new angle. If I get into a real discussion, the usual quarter of an hour seems like a very short time! It can be a pity to have to stop a good conversation because other people are waiting on the other side of the door, waiting to see the guest.
Being able to ask intelligent* questions is an extremely important aspect of professional development. It will serve you extemely well during interviews, meeting with clients, and as you see here, meeting with other professionals. Pretty much anytime you want to sell yourself, which is always.
*Contrary to the popular saying, there really are such things as "dumb questions". It's not as if dumb people suddenly say something intelligent just because they are asking a question.